


The One Where They Know

by SophiaEAnderson



Series: The One Where They Know [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Comics, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Dc superheroes - Freeform, Identity Reveal, Multi, Not a daminette, Secret Identity, Superheroes, dc heroes do exist and may show up, or a maribat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:21:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25615789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaEAnderson/pseuds/SophiaEAnderson
Summary: When Hawkmoth makes an appearance before the start of the show, Marinette and Adrien are both alone. This leads to them relying on each other more and figuring out each others identities when they meet as civilians. How does this change their dynamics? And what happens when the Miraculous Ladybug cure comes with a price?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Series: The One Where They Know [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856776
Comments: 9
Kudos: 31





	1. Can't The First Day of School Ever End Well?

**Author's Note:**

> Can also be read on my Tumblr https://whatisthiscontentyouspeakof.tumblr.com/post/625022573282017280/the-one-where-they-know-rough

Marinette left her house that morning with a full box of Macaroons and the hope that this year wouldn’t be as bad nor as Chloé filled as the year before. Then she just missed the light to cross the school, dashing her hopes of making it to school early. Then she helped an older man across the street, which she was happy to do since she didn’t want him being hit by a car, but she ended up dumping her box of Macaroons all over the ground. On the plus side some of them made it through the fall. She offered the older man one before running towards the school, determined not to be late on the first day of school.

She bolted up the stairs of the building to get to her classroom just in time to see Mrs. Bustier asking Nino Lahiffe, a boy who’d she had shared classed with since before she even knew the name Chloé Bourgeois.

A well manicured hand smacked down on her desk. Speak of the devil, good bye to a relaxing quatrième. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Chloé said, emphasizing each part of her name.

“Ugh, here we go again.” Marinette couldn’t help but say as she slumped her shoulders. God, it was bad enough that she had to deal with Chloé all the time as Ladybug but she couldn’t have just one year without the entitled bratty blond.

“That’s my seat.” Chloé said, sounding just as bratty as she did every other year. 

Marinette was too tired to deal with this bull. Even so she tried to reason with the blond. “But Chloé, this has always been my seat.”

“Not anymore,” Chloé’s minions, she meant Sabrina, said sledding onto the bench beside her. “New school, new year, new seats.”

“So why don’t you just go and sit beside that new girl over there,” Chloé said, pointing to were a dark-skinned girl was sitting, the same spot Chloé and Sabrina usually sat. 

“But-“ Marinette started to say, trying to pull together enough energy to protest. 

“Listen,” Chloé said, speaking over her. “Adrien is arriving today, and since that’s” she pointed to the spot in front of Marinette, “going to be his seat, this is going to be my my seat. Got it.”

“Who’s Adrien?” she couldn’t help but ask. The only Adrien she knew was her Adrien, and no way he’d be friends with someone like Chloé.

The didn’t seem like the right thing to say as Chloe burst out laughing, Sabrina just half a second behind her. 

“Can you believe she doesn’t know who Adrien is,” Chloe said to Sabrina. She turned back to Marinette. “What rock have you been living under?

“He’s only a famous model,” Sabina said, adding her two cents to the conversations.

“And I am his best friend.” Chloe said, putting a hand to her chest. “He adores me.”

Was anyone even sure this Adrien guy even existed, Marinette couldn’t help but wonder to herself. She didn’t know anyone who’d be friends with Chloe, not even Sabrina, since she was more of a lackey then anything.

“Go on, more!” Chloe ordered.

“Hey!” The new girl was not standing behind Chloe. “Who elected you queen of seats?”

“Oh, look Sabrina,” Chloe said in a mocking tone as she leaned against Marinette’s desk. She then got up in the girls face. “We got a little do-gooder in the class this year. What are you going to super newbie, shoot beams at me with your glasses.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” the girl said before reaching down and grabbing Marinette’s arm. “Come on.”

Marinette tried to keep up with the confident girl, grabbing her macaroons and bag. Unfortunately in the scramble to get her stuff she forgot about the step between the two seat levels and, in classic Marinette fashion, face planted. Marinette started apologizing under her breath out of habit, picking up the macaroons that had fallen as Chloe and Sabrina laughed in the background. 

“Alright, has every found a seat?” Mrs. Bustier asked. Sometimes Marinette wished her teacher would help out instead of just sitting back and watching, but then again, most the staff here wouldn’t dare say a thing against Chloe since her dad is the mayor. 

Marinette just looked how at her macaroon box which was now essentially empty of any eatable cookies from the two falls. So much for having a treat to share with her classmates. 

“Chillax girl, no biggie,” the new girl said to her. 

“I so wish I could handle Chloe the way you do,” Marinette said. A part of her felt like she recognized the girl sitting beside her. Maybe she’d seen her at the bakery.

“You mean the way Majestia does it. She says ‘all that is necessarily for the triumph of evil is that good people to do nothing’.” The girl said. She spun Marinette around to point to Chloe. “Well that girl over there is evil and we are the good people, we can’t let her get away with it. Do you think Ladybug or Chat Noir let anyone get away with acting like that?”

Yes. Not that Marinette could say that. Akuma’s seemed so much easier to face then Chloe, even when she wasn’t sleep deprived. At least Akuma victims weren’t in control of their actions. 

“Well that’s easier said then done.” Marinette said instead. “She likes to make my life miserable.”

“That’s cuz you let her girl, you just need more confidence.” The new girl said.

Marinette couldn’t help but smile. Chat Noir had said the same thing, and if this girl was giving her the same kind of advice that her partner did, then she was someone that Marinette wanted to get to know. She reached down and pulled out the only macaroon left that wasn’t destroyed. She broke it in half and reached one out to the girl. “Marinette.”

“Alya,” the new girl said, taking the macaroon half.

Marinette’s eyes widened. “As in the Ladyblogger!” she said finally realizing why the girl had seemed familiar. “I knew I recognized your face but my parents own a bakery and I just thought I must of seen you during one of my shifts.”

Alya covered her mouth her hand so she didn’t spew out any cookie remnants as she spoke. “I think you may be one of the first people who’ve recognized me outside of an Akuma attack.” she said. 

“I think you may have to get used to it,” Marinette said, remembering how many views she’d seen on the page visit counter the last time she’d looked. “You’re blog has really hit a spike in views this past week. saw one comment say you’re the only news source out there that doesn't overshadow Ladybug and Chat Noirs achieves with political BS. I doubt I’m going to be the last person to recognize you.”

“Oh girl, your too nice. I’m still a far way off from being internet famous.” Alya said, a slight blush covering her cheeks. She was obvious proud of her blog, even if she didn’t seem to realize how close she was going to her blog being a household name, at least in Paris. 

“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ms. Bustier,” The red headed teacher continued from at the front of the classroom. “I’ll be your teacher this year.”

Marinette stop listening as Ms. Bustier went through the stuff she said every year, instead focusing on getting her stuff sorted out on her desk, even though she knew they probably wouldn’t be doing much actually work today. Ms. Bustier wasn’t the type of teacher to just jump into things, like Ms. Mendeleiev.

“Now some things are going to be a bit different this year compared to last year.” Ms. Bustier said and Marinette decided to pay attention again, just in case it was important. “Now as I’m sure you’re all aware, just before the end of last year a super villain, Hawkmoth appeared. Now, we as a school, didn’t have much planned for how to deal with the situation or how we could help, but over the summer a few of us got together and brained stormed. Starting at the beginning of every class of the day, I’m going to run you through a short meditation before each one of us is going to say something nice about another classmate. Now I know that some of you are new to the class and don’t know anyone yet do today I just want everyone to say something they want to accomplish this year. That way each and every one of you have something to look forward to.”

Not the worse idea all things considered, Marinette thought. Though a part of her thought they’d run less of chance of being Akumatized if the teachers did something about Chloe and her behaviour. But who knows, maybe the meditation was just a start, maybe the staff would try a new approach with Chloe this year. 

After they went through their meditations, which had involved a lot of giggling at first before the class settled down for the last minute. Marinette hoped that, after awhile, they’d be able to settle down quickly and have everyone take mediation serious. There hadn’t been a lot of youth Akumas but school had also been out for a majority of the time Hawkmoth had been around, but school was open again and that meant bullies had all their targets in one place. If her fellow kids learned how to calm down and keep a cool head, maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about fighting any of her classmates.

Ms.Bustier clapped her hands together. “Now that we’ve all found our centres and are calm, why don’t we go through and each say what we want to accomplish this year. Chloe, why don’t you start?”

Chloe, who had just started to file her nails, sighed. “I guess. Obvious my goal for the year is to have a sit down with Ladybug since she’s the best and I’m obviously the best.”

“What about you Ivan?” Ms. Bustier asked.

Ivan kind of glowered, muttering something under his breath about being more social outside of school.

“That’s great Ivan. What about you Alya? Is there anything as a new student that you want to accomplish?” Ms. Bustier asked.

“Not really. School’s school, you know.” Alya said with a shrug. “I’d love to have an interview with Ladybug for my blog however. That would be so awesome.”

“Look at that, you and Chloe both have a goal involving Ladybug. Maybe the two of you could sit down and see if you have anything else in common. Maybe you’ll end up becoming friends.” Ms. Bustier suggested.

“Doubt it,” both Alya and Chloe scoffed. 

Ms. Bustier frowned but moved on. “Juleka, what do you want to accomplish this year?”

Much like Ivan, most of what Jukela said wasn’t heard by the rest of the class because of her mumbling but Marinette heard something about curses, photos and modelling. 

“That’s great Juleka, maybe you can also see about speaking up more in class,” Ms. Bustier offered, most likely haven’t had heard anything the goth had said. “What about you Marinette?”

Marinette smiled at her teacher. “I think I just want to get as good of a grade in science as I did last year.” she said. “And focus more on my designing in my spare time, maybe even sell some things.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able accomplish that,” Ms. Bustier said. “Mylène, what about you?”

“I’d love to do more environmental volunteer work,” Mylène said.

“That’s amazing Mylène, I’m sure you’ll make a great impact on Paris,” Ms. Bustier said smiling. “Max, what do you want to accomplish?”

“I plan on taking back my title of top of the year,” Max said, pushing his glasses up. Marinette just shrugged, he was welcomed to the title, no way was she going to have enough time to try and get that title again this year, nor did she need that kind of stress in her life on top of saving Paris on a weekly basis. 

“Well if previous years are anything to go by, I’m sure you’ll be able to reclaim your title.” Ms. Bustier said. “Alix, what about you?”

“I so plan on winning this years Rollerblade Marathon,” Alix said. “No one’s going to get in my way this year. Not with all the practice I’ve been putting in.”

“I’m sure you’ll succeed.” Ms. Bustier said. “Nathaniel what about you?”

Nathaniel shrunk under the attention, but his voice was clear when he spoke. “I’ve, ah, been working on doing some sketches for a comic. I’d love to find a writer to work with.”

“Maybe if you get a writer to work with, you’d be able to publish your work in the school news paper,” Ms. Bustier suggested. “Nino, what about you?”

Nino shrugged. “i don’t know. Work on my music, maybe make some short films. Enter a competition or two.”

“That sounds like great fun,” Ms. Bustier said. “Rose, what about you?”

“Oh there’s so much I want to do but if I have to pick just one….” Rose said. “I think I’d agree with Mylène, I want to do more volunteer work and help out the people of Paris and others less fortunate.”

“Maybe you and Mylène can do some environmental work together, maybe even put together a club for all the other kids at school who want to help out Paris.” Ms. Bustier said. “Kim, what do you want to do?”

“There’s some vacancies on the swim team this year, and since I am going to make the team, I’d like to get gold at Nationals,” Kim said confidently. 

“Well you’ve always been good at sports so I’m sure you’ll make the team.” Ms. Bustier agreed. “And finally, Sabrina, what do you want to accomplish this year.”

Sabrina smiled up at the teacher. “I’m obviously going to help Chloe reach her goal of having a sit down with Ladybug. Maybe once she sees how awesome Chloe is she’ll make Chloe a hero as well.”

“Not likely,” Alya muttered.

“Tell me about it,” Marinette agreed.

“Well…that’s great Sabrina. Though maybe you should think of a goal that’s more personal, that doesn’t involve anyone else,” Ms. Bustier suggested. “Now onto the lesson. This year the school has provided iPads for each of you to use. Starting tomorrow you’ll each be given an iPad to use for class before giving it back to me at the end of the day so I can charge it for the next day. Until then we’re going to continue doing this old school. If everyone could come up and get a textbook from the front we can start.”

* * *

The bell rang, signalling the end to their class. 

“Those of you who have PE, Mr. D’Argencourt is expecting you at the stadium.” Ms. Bustier said. “The rest of you can head over to the library.”

“KIIIMMMM!” A yell interrupted Ms. Bustier. Marinette glanced back to see Ivan preparing to deck Kim who looked was looking back at him with a smug grin, as if his reaction was what Kim had been going for.

“Ivan!” Ms. Bustier called out to him sharply. “What is going on?”

“It’s Kim,” Ivan said, as it explained anything, before forcing on Kim again as he brought his fist back to punch the athlete. “You’re do gonna get it.”

“Ivan!” Ms. Bustier said, once again stopping him from punching Kim. “Go to the principles office!”

Ivan grumbled in anger but didn’t protest. He crunched up the piece of paper he’d been holding in his hand and stocked out of the room.

Marinette watched him go, hoping he’d cool off by the time he got to the principles office. She really didn’t need an Akuma on her first day of school, especially not one of her classmates. Normally she would try and go after him but she had promised her parents she’d try not to be so late all the time, and she at least wanted to keep true to that for a bit before being a superhero destroyed her time management skills. Anyways, Ivan was really a big softy under all the exterior. She was sure he’d stop be angry before Hawkmoth could try and Akumatize him. 

Since there really wasn’t anything for them to work on in the library quite yet, Marinette allowed Alya to gush about her favourite superheroes, both from comics (Majestia) and from real life (toss up between Ladybug and Wonder Woman). She had even shown Marinette some footage she had edited out from Akuma battles, of Ladybug and Chat Noir throwing jokes at each other. She was waiting to collect more so she could make a video just of them and all the silly names they call each other. 

BOOM!

The group shook violently enough to throw Marinette and Alya from the seats they were sitting and onto the floor.

What were the chances that came from something other then an Akuma? And if it were an Akuma, that it wasn’t Ivan.

Alya got up to her feet before Marinette, grabbing her arm with a ‘Come on’ and dragging her towards the screen that displayed the schools security cameras. A bunch of concern students were already crowding around them, trying to get visual on the Akuma so they could know if they were safe or not.

The one camera showed a stone Akuma standing in a crater just outside the school steps. 

“KIIIMMM!” The Akuma, who sounded just like Ivan, yelled. 

“Isn’t that the kid from class?” Alya asked her, sounding excited. 

“Ivan, yeah.” Marinette said, trying to think of a way to get somewhere safe to transform. 

“This is the first time I’ve actually been in the same building as someone who’d been Akumatized. I got to go follow him! My first chance of filming an Akuma, essentially from the beginning.” Alya, in her excitement, didn’t wait for Marinette to say anything, instead rushing out of the library.

Marinette just sighed, surely coming to the realization that her new friend may give her a heart attack, or at least a few grey hairs. She didn’t go after her though, instead heading out to find somewhere to transform, making a note to herself to keep an eye out for the blogger so she didn’t get in trouble. 

Marinette slipped into her homeroom, which was empty and had window access, always a bonus, and opened up her purse. Tikki flew up to face level.

“Ready to go Tikki?” Marinette asked. Her Kwami let out a cute ‘uh-huh’, and Marinette smiled. “Alright then, Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette leaned her head back feeling her transformation taking over. She had found it weird in the beginning that the magic that overtook her as she transformed, also made her do a stereotypical Magical Girl transformation, but now she had come to accept it, just relaxing and allowing the magic to flow through her. At least her little transformation dance didn’t seem to be visible to anyone, nor did it seem to take anytime since the same thing that was happening when she called for the transformation, was still happening when she transformed as if no one had moved. 

The pink light faded leaving Marinette in her same old Ladybug outfit. Not that it really mattered right now but, during an Akuma dry spell, Marinette had decided that she didn’t overly care for her hero outfit. After she let something slip to Chat, who’d mention that Plagg had told him that he could change his outfit, he just needed to visualize it, she had been wanting to design something a little less basic and childish. Of course, she just needed to find the time and inspiration to do just that. Oh well, until then, her original Ladybug outfit would work just fine, after all, you can’t go wrong with classics. 

Ladybug swung away from the school, keeping an ear out for both her partner and for this Akuma. At least she knew Ivan was after Kim, who’d be at the stadium today, so she at least knew what way to head. 

“Milady!” Chat Noirs voice called out to her. Ladybug landed on a rooftop before turning and looking for her partner. She found him a few roof tops away; one baton ride later and he joined her on the roof. “So much for a first day of school. How many do you think are going to close down?”

“Defiantly Collège Françoise Dupont,” Ladybug said. “The Akuma originale there. It’s a student who’s going after another student who is currently at Parc des Princes. The this news blogger who apparently just started there so she’s been sharing footage of the entire thing.”

“The Ladyblogger?” Chat Noir asked. Ladybug nodded, looking a little surprised. “I may of obsessively research anything to do with us. Her content is good, though it’d be better if she wasn’t trying to figure out our identities. Should we look at the footage to see where they are?”

Ladybug just looked as him. “I’m pretty sure a giant stone being is going to be hard to miss.” she said dryly. 

Chat Noir just smiled at her. “Bet I could find him before you.”

Ladybug just smirked at him before tossing her yo-yo and flying through the air.

“Hey! That’s cheating!” She could hear Chat Noir yelling behind her. She just laughed. 

It took another three swings through the air, and Chat Noir catching up with her, before either of them could hear the stone Akuma walking. Surprisingly he was almost to the stadium. Apparently being made of stone hadn’t slowed Ivan down at all. Ladybug was about ready to swing down and distract the akuma when a few police cars pulled up.

“Great,” Chat Noir said sarcastically. Akuma battles always went better when law enforcement didn’t get involved. Sure, some police officers, like Sabrina’s dad, were helpful and tried to stay out of the way as soon as the two got on the scene but others had quickly decided that they knew better then the young heroes and the two of them often had to waste time trying to get a majority of them to safety. 

Chat Noir made a more to head down to ground level but Ladybug held an arm out. “Let’s just wait a moment. See if we can figure anything out while the police distract him.”

Chat Noir nodded, resting against his baton as Ladybug crouched down to get a better view. 

“Akuma, I order you to stand down! If you do not then my officers will be forced to shoot!” Lieutenant Léon Roux yelled through a megaphone as if that would actually do anything. Ladybug and Chat Noir met each others gazes and rolled their eyes. 

The stone Akuma just continued to head towards the stadium, not even pausing to give the police the time of day. 

“Ready!” Lieutenant Roux yelled. “FIRE!”

The police officers around him started to open fire on the Akuma much to the annoyance of Ladybug and Chat Noir. The two of them weren’t worried about the Akuma. They had quickly figured out that when an Akuma ignored the police, it generally meant that they didn’t view them as a threat, that nothing they could do could harm them.

Sure enough the stone Akuma just seemed more annoyed then anything as a yellow light encased him causing him to double, if not triple, in size. Well that was interesting. Ladybug really hoped that the rumours the other police officers, the ones who let the two heroes actually do their job, had told her, were true. That Lieutenant Roux was moving out of Paris to another department within France and that an officer was being promoted. Especially if it was office Raincomprix like a majority of rumours said. 

“We’ll have to try and avoid hitting the akuma directly,” Ladybug said aloud even though her partner had probably realized this himself. They had learned early on that communication was key in this line of work. “Any idea where the Akuma is?”

“Not yet milady.” Chat Noir said. He looked at the surrounding area. “News on scene.” 

Ladybug looked around and sure enough, she could see not just Alya, who was crouched behind one of the police cars filming, but Nadja with her camera crew just across the street. The two of them would have to make sure when the engaged the Akuma that they didn’t end up putting any civilians in danger. 

“Come on,” Ladybug said to Chat Noir as the Akuma was nearing the entrance. The two of them stealthily made their way to the top of the stadium and then down to the field below. 

“Do you see the students?” Ladybug asked. Even if her partner couldn’t, he had way better hearing and lets face it, kids sucked at keeping quiet. At least they had realized the Akuma was heading their way and had hid. 

“Ladybug!” A voice called out to her. She turned and saw Rose who had popped up from behind one of the chairs. Slowly she saw Max, Alix, Nino, Kim, Jean, Aurore, Mirellie, Allegra, Claude poke their heads up from behind seats. Well that was easy.

“An Akuma is about two seconds away from busting in here,” Chat Noir said. 

“Everyone head towards the change rooms and take the emergency exit out. Chat Noir and I will take care of the Akuma,” Ladybug ordered. Her fellow students were quick to escape, having seen enough Akuma battles on the news to known things ended up going the best when people listened to the local heroes. The last kid ran down the tunnel where the change rooms were right as the Akuma burst through the stadium doors.

“KIIIMMM!” He yelled. “So who’s the wuss now?!” 

The Akuma looked around to see only her and Chat Noir standing there. “Where’s KIIMMM!” he demanded.

“Not here. Sorry. Maybe try again tomorrow.” Chat Noir said, his tone light. 

That seemed to anger the stone being, who swatted at Chat Noir. The two heroes jumped apart to avoid the giant stone fist. 

“Ivan, do you really think squishing Kim is going to make anything better?” Ladybug asked, trying to see if she could spot the Akuma. She had an idea but wanted to see if she was right before calling for her Lucky Charm.

“I’m not Ivan anymore. I’m Stoneheart.” The Akuma yelled, smacking his hand down to try and flatten her. She dived to the side and rolled back to her feet. 

Stoneheart headed towards the tunnel he’d seen a student run through when he had first came in.

“Chat Noir! I know where the akuma is!” Ladybug yelled pointing to the tunnel. Chat Noir got what she meant.

“Cataclysm!” He yelled rushing the tunnel. He ran his hadn't along the tunnel entrance, causing it to collapse. If Stoneheart wanted to get through, he’d have to bulldoze his way through and that would take time. Chat Noir propelled himself into the air, landing beside her. “What’s the plan?”

“Every time Stoneheart has gone to smack us or the police he’s being using his left hand.” Ladybug explained.

“You think he’s holding the Akumatized object in his right hand.” Chat Noir finished.

“Yep. So all we need to do is get him to open it. Lucky Charm!”

She flung her yoyo up into the air. As if flew back down to her so did a red and black wetsuit.

“It is a lovely day to go swimming but I don’t believe that now is the time,” Chat Noir said. 

Why couldn’t she ever get a Lucky Charm that made sense. She knew it was part of being a ladybug holder to figure things out and be creative but her life would be so much easier if her Lucky Charms were straight to the point. 

Ladybug glanced around trying to see how she could make this work. She needed Stoneheart to open his fist. The wetsuit had closed off hands and feet. A hose was by her feet and Alya had snuck in behind Stoneheart and had crouched down right by where the hose tap was. Ladybug smiled as she looked at her partner. 

She wrapped the neck of the wetsuit around the hose so that it was secure and leak proof. She spun her yoyo around Chat Noirs legs, just above his ankles where his ‘boots’ ended. “Don’t resist, just trust me, okay?”

“Always miiiiiilaaaady!” Chat Noir yelled, his normal nickname for her get starched out as she pulled on her yoyo, yanking his feel from under him and swinging him through the air and right in Stonehearts fist. 

For the first time Ladybug realized that, with how big Stonehearts hands were, he wouldn’t be able to take their miraculous’ even if he had gotten them in a position to do so. With a wide smile she jumped through the air. “Catch me if you can!” she taunted.

The orders of getting them beat out over Stonehearts need to protect his akumatized object, just like she had planned. With a grunt Stoneheart trapped her in his other fist, a black crumpled piece of paper, that was vaguely rock shaped, falling to the ground. 

“And now, Alya the tap!” Thank her lucky stars that Alya instantly knew what she meant, rushing to the hose tap. The hose started filling up the wetsuit, expanding it. Within seconds the suit was so big it forced Stonehearts hand open, releasing her. 

Ladybug quickly dashed towards the akumatized object on the ground and stomped on it releasing the Akuma butterfly. She went to take her yoyo out and catch it to purify it only to hear a shout behind her.

“Aim!” She heard Lieutenant Roux say. She turned and saw a handful of police officers in the doorway aiming their guns at Stoneheart, who she knew was seconds away from transforming back into Ivan.

“Wait!” She yelled jumping in the way. 

“Little missy, we’ve had enough of your little games. It’s time we dealt with these Akumas ourselves.” Lieutenant Roux said. He turned back to the officers that had followed him in. “Get ready boys.”

“We already got the Akuma!” Ladybug said firmly. As if to confirm it she saw a yellow light behind her and could hear Chat Noir yelp as he dropped to the ground now that Stoneheart was a normal human size. “If you had fired, you would have hit an innocent child.”

“Innocent my ass. Paris is sick of being terrorized! Sick of these monsters. They should be charged as terrorists!” Lieutenant Roux said. A few of his officers looked like they agreed but a couple looked uncomfortable. 

“Be careful,” Chat Noir said, coming to stand by her side, “or you might be Hawkmoths next victim if you get any more worked up.”

Lieutenant Roux just growled at him.

“Meouch,” Chat Noir said, unfazed. 

“Do you really think Paris will stand by your view point?” Alya called out to the officer, her phone still up.

Lieutenant Roux glared at her. “Hand over your phone right this instant young lady!” he ordered. “It’s evidence of terrorism.”

“Go ahead,” Alya said, unfazed much like Chat Noir had been. “It’s been live streaming to my blog this entire time so if you really want the video you can just go there.”

Lieutenant Roux was close to turning completely red with anger but before he could do anything his phone rang. He looked at his phone before paling and heading towards the exit, signalling for his officers to follow him.

Ladybug turned to Alya. “Be careful and keep an eye out. If he does get akumatized he may go after you.” she warned Alya before beeping filled the air.

“We need to go,” Chat Noir said. The two waved goodbye before heading up over the stadium wall, with Ladybug grabbing the wetsuit on the way, and to a nearby roof. 

Chat Noir smiled at her. The two of them reached hands out with a ‘Pound it’ that was quickly becoming common for them. Ladybug reached down to grab the wetsuit and throw it into the air when a thought hit her, causing her to gasp in horror.

“Milady are you okay?” Chat Noir asked.

“The Akuma.” She whispered. “I didn’t catch the Akuma.”


	2. It's Been A Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how I feel about his chapter. It feels forced and flat and I don't really care for it but whatever. I'll probably rewrite it later but until then it serves its purpose and if I tried to fix it now I know I'd just I'd just kill any creative energy I have for this story and let it sit and die and I don't want that to happen.

Chat Noir and her had both tried searching for the akuma but since they were both so close to their transformation they had to give up. Marinette felt dread fill her heart. This was worse then her first day as a superhero when she had almost forgotten to purify the akuma but Chat Noir had reminded her but they still had to chance they thing half way across town before she could capture it. She had no idea what was going to happen now.

Unfortunately all she could do was cast the Miraculous Ladybug cure and head home since the akuma was long gone.

“Tikki, what do I do now?” Marinette softly asked her Kwami once she was in the privacy of her own room. She felt drained now that she was alone, shame at her failure overcoming her. She shouldn’t have gotten distracted and let Chat Noir handle the situation, he would have made sure Ivan was safe and she wouldn’t have gotten the akuma.

“I’m afraid there is nothing you can do, Marinette,” Tikki said, floating up to look her in the eye.

“But what does not purifying the akuma mean?” Marinette asked. “Ivan is obviously back to being himself and I was able to fix everything so what’s going to happening? Does the un-purified akuma give Hawkmoth some sort new power? If so why hasn’t he used it before? Will he-“

“Marinette!” Tiki yelled, having already said her name a few times, getting no reactions. “Take a deep breath.” Marinette did as she was told, taking a deep breath before looking at Tikki. “So there’s two things that could happen since the akuma wasn’t purified. One, Hawkmoth won’t do anything, either because he doesn’t see the point in reusing the akuma, or because he doesn’t know how to he can reuse it. The other thing he could do is reuse the akuma if he’s aware of the ability. That means the second Ivan gets upset again he’ll be re-akumatized into Stoneheart again. He’ll also get the ability to control minions.”

“Minions?” Marinette asked. “You mean like how other akumas can take control of people?”

Tikki nodded before shrugging. “Sort of. Instead of Stoneheart needing to come into contact with someone to turn them into a minion like other akumas, Hawkmoth will actually be able to turn anyone upset into a stone being for Stoneheart to take control of when Ivan turns into him again.”

Marinette bit worryingly at her lip. On one hand, she needed to keep Ivan from getting upset since she doesn’t want him being re-akumatized, but a part of her wanted Ivan to get upset as soon as possible so that if Hawkmoth was planning on akumatizing Ivan, she could purify the akuma before a bunch of other civilians got turn into stone minions.

Tikki seemed to know what she was thinking because she said, “There’s no point in worry about it now, Marinette. We don’t even know if Hawkmoth will even re-akumatize Ivan. We can wait until tomorrow to deal with all this.”

Marinette allowed herself to relax like Tikki said, sending Chat Noir a message to tell him to do the same. She had a nice supper with her parents and finished a few tiny projects she was working on before heading to bed a bit earlier then normal. After all, the early she was to bed, theoretically, the easier she would wake up and make it to school and check on Ivan.

Marinette made her way downstairs the next morning trying to figure out how to bring up Ivan’s akumatization with him since it was an unspoken rule that bringing up someones akumatization to them is really rude.

“Good morning Papa,” Marinette greeted, kissing her dad on the cheek. “Maman in the bakery?”

“Yes. She’s training Harmony on the cash register today.” her dad responded. Harmony was their newest hire. She’d help with the front end aspects of the bakery so that her maman could focus on custom orders and decorating while her papa made the stuff for customers that just walked in. They had other bakers on staff but it was only on a part time or casual basis depending on how busy the bakery was. And her maman and papa both like making sure everything made was to their standard so it was just easier to hire people to run the front end and help customers.

Marinette grabbed her cereal bowl just as the news turned on. Nadja was onscreen, showing pictures of other stone beings that were frozen in place.

“Don’t be amused, it’s just the news,” Nadja said, before going onto news coverage. “The stone beings are all over Paris.” The screen filled with a clip of a police officer standing guard over the frozen stone being while a civilian was taking its photo. “For now, they’re showing now signs movement.” It cut to another stone being, this one outside the Louvre. “Police have cordoned off the areas.” Was that one by the Arc de Triomphe? There was going to be a lot of angry people if the Police had to block off part of the road.

The Screen turned to show the Mayor standing in front of Hôtel de Ville speaking to what Marinette assumed was a bunch of reporters since he had a press podium in front of him. “We won’t stop until we get these people back to normal.” the mayor was saying. She noticed that Sabrina’s dad, Roger Raincomprix was standing behind the Mayor, his arm in a sling. She would have thought Lieutenant Roux would have been standing there since he was the lead on all Akuma cases. Not that she missed him. Officer Raincomprix was more understanding and empathic to Akuma victims. If he had been there in the stadium yesterday, he would never had ordered his officers to shoot and Marinette would have gotten the Akuma just like she had all the other times.

“We’re not making much headway but with the help of Lieutenant Raincomprix, who has been promoted to take over for Lieutenant Roux as the lead on Akuma cases, and our heroes, I’m sure everything will be back to normal before supper tonight,” the mayor said jollily. Marinette couldn’t even feel happy she no longer had to deal with Roux and his views on Hawkmoth and Akumas since the mayors promise of having everything normal by this evening was making her anxious. What if she and Chat Noir couldn’t fix this? What if Hawkmoth kept the people as stone beings and never reakumatized Ivan?

The screen cut back to Nadja with the picture showing a image of her and Chat Noir instead of any of the stone beings. “Paris is relying on our guardian angels, our heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, to save us all.” she said, making Marinette feel worse. If she had just dealt with Roux quicker she would have been able to get the Akuma and none of this would have happened. “Our lives depend on them.”

Marinette couldn’t help but gasp a little. She knew if she failed that Paris would suffer but this was the first time that something had happened that could actually be considered a failure and it was weighing heavily on her.

She felt her father place a large, warm hand on her should. “I know all this is scary and upsetting,” he told her gently. “We’ve never had an akuma attack that’s lasted more then a day, but don’t worry, Ladybug and Chat Noir will fix it, just like they have in the past. We just have to show them that we’re not scared, that we believe in them because we trust them and know that they’ll find a way to turn those people back to normal.”

“But what if Ladybug fails?” she couldn’t help but voice the thought she had had since she first started doing this. If she failed then there was no one to purify the Akuma or rebuild the city. Hawkmoth would win. The little voice in the back of her head, the one that she thought had died the more comfortable she had gotten with being a hero, was telling her to find someone better to be a hero, someone older with more experience. God, there was the entire Justice League who dealt with this kind of things. Another voice reminded her that Chat Noir and her had agreed that getting the Justice League involved was a bad idea since it ran the risk of someone capable with their own powers getting akumatized.

“Then, I’d come and save you,” her papa said as if it were the easy. “Superbaker to the rescue!”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle as her dad picked up a baguette and held it forward like a sword. She turned and hug him, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Superdad.” she told him, genuinely feeling better. If her dad could believe in her, then she could to. And she knew her partner, he always had her back. They’d be able to figure this out, together.

Now energized for the day Marinette made her way back up to her room, a hop in her step. She had this.

Marinette walked through the school doors, having met Alya right outside the doors. Was this what having a best (civilian) friend was like? She was just glad she wasn’t late so Alya didn’t have to wait for her or risk being late herself.

“Look at this,” Alya said handing her her cellphone. “Apparently a bunch of other teens are a bit freaked out that another person their age got akumatized, it’s becoming more and more common after all, that they all decided they need more information on Akumas, Akuma attacks and all news related to either, including that of our heroes. My blog had a major spike in visitors last night, especially since the news used my footage of the battle. I may have update my blog to make sure it doesn’t crash.”

“That’s great. At least something positive came from having one of our classmates become an akuma.” Marinette said, handing Alya her phone back.

“That’s a good way to look at it, girl. Staying positive is the best way for us to fight against Hawkmoth. Ladybug even said that herself you know. I bet you won’t have to worry about getting akumatized with kind of attitude.” Alya said, completing her as if it were the easiest thing to do. Marinette wasn’t used to be completed as Marinette, at least outside of the Art Room. Chloe had made sure that anyone who did would later regret it.

Before Marinette could say anything nice about Alya, both of their attentions were grabbed by a group of people surrounding Ivan. Marinette frowned as he started to look upset. You’d think by now people would realize that upsetting people was a bad and mean idea, not to mention stupid since everyone had the chance of becoming an akuma.

“Come on Ivan.” Kim was needling. “You have to know what went wrong. Why are you normal and there a a bunch of stone monsters still hanging around? What did you do?”

“Everyone knows akuma victims don’t have any memories,” Rose said, trying to defend the gentle giant. “You can’t blame them for their actions.”

“Yeah, and everyone knows that after an Akuma is defeated the city is repaired and everyone is returned to normal and yet here we are, the city in ruins and several people have been turned into stone beings,” Kim argued. “So who’s to say that he doesn’t remember exactly what he did?”

Several people looked uncomfortable with what Kim was saying but no one spoke up. She notice Ivan looked towards Mylène, as if hoping for her to either say something, or to not look at him like he was a monster.

Well no one nice anyways. “Once a monster, always a monster,” Chloe said form off to the side, Sabrina standing half a step behind her. “We all saw the way you were going to beat Kim up even without the Akuma. Are any of us surprised that you turned into one of those monsters? Now with innocent Parisians turning into a bunch of stone versions of Akuma you, I’m surprised you haven’t been brought in.”

Iva stood up, obviously sick of everything he was hearing, storming off angrily.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Chloe called after him.

Marinette felt angry on Ivans behalf. If anyone was a monster here, it was Chloe. She saw Alya turned angrily towards Chloe, and decided to let her deal with the bully since she had dealt with her so well the day before. Concerned about Ivan, she raced after him. She knew there was a chance he’d be reakumatized, and while that would give her the chance to purify the akuma, she didn’t want her classmate going through such negative emotions. If need be she’d get Chat Noir and the two fo them would take Ivan somewhere private and let him know what’s happening before trying to get him akumatized so they didn’t risk the chance of any civilians getting hurt.

She found the larger boy sitting on the floor of the locker room in front of his locker. He had headphones one and seemed to be trying to destress as not to get reakumatize, something Marinette applauded him for. He knew he was upset and was trying to calm down and deal with it in a way that was helpful and relaxing to him.

She knelt down beside him and place a gentle hand on his arm. His face relaxed at bit seeing it was her, pulling his headphones off and looking at her.

“You should tell Mylène how you feel,” she told him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ivan insisted.

Marinette smiled encouragingly. “Come on, I saw how you look at her.”

Ivan looked at her as if trying to tell if she was making fun of him. She tried to look as supportive as possible. She genuinely thought he and Mylène would make a cute couple and that the shorter girl felt the same way about him. Ivan looked away, still looking upset.

“No, no negative emotions.” he looked up her angrily and she had to back track. It did sort of sound like she only cared that he didn’t become a ‘monster’ again. “What I mean is…be positive. I’m sure she likes you too.” She leaned closer. “Do talk to her.”

“I’m no good with words.” Ivan said and Marinette could almost shout in joy. She was making headway. He was no longer denying that he liked Mylène and pretty soon the two of them would become the schools cutest couple.

“Who needs words?” Marinette said. She was so going to make this happen. “You could draw her a picture, send her flowers….”

“I could write her a song?” Ivan asked hopefully.

She smiled widely at the idea. Maybe he’d be better with words when it was an art form and something he could practice. Especially since this was the most upbeat she’d seen him yet. “That’s a great idea!” Marinette said firmly, her hands forming little determined fists. She’d love it if someone wrote her a song. It’d be so romantic. “Who wouldn’t want a love song written for her? Go for it, Ivan, and stay positive. We can all make the world a better place, one full of love, if we were all just more positive.”

Ivan nodded at her, shooting her a smile, before heading off to write his love song. Marinette smiled as she watched him disappear. She couldn’t wait to hear what he wrote, or see what a cute couple he and Mylène will be.

“You did good Marinette,” Tikki said, flying out of her purse.

“Even if I didn’t take the chance to fix everything?” she asked her Kwami, sure that Tikki would be disappointed with her.

“You’re classmates feelings are more important. And I’m sure you’ve already come up with an idea of how to fix everything later. You looked out for your classmate and his feeling and that’s what’s important.” Tikki said.

Marinette smiled at her before opening her purse back up, allowing Tikki to fly back in. It wouldn’t do her any good to be on school property and still make it to class late. She’d never hear the end of it.

Marinette was happy to Alya was still downstairs. This way, if she was late, at least she wasn’t going to be late alone.

“Oh, I can’t stand Chloe,” Alya said. “Who does she think she is, making fun of people and making them feel worse then they already do.”

“She thinks she’s the mayors daughter.” Marinette muttered. She sighed. “I get, Chloe can be really upsetting but you have to be careful. I admire the way you’re able to stand up to her, but the school won’t punish her in case they piss off her dad. You have to be careful that you don’t get punish instead.”

Alya placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for looking out for me, girl, but I got his. Chloe and her dad don’t scare me.”

Alya walked through the classroom door and gasped. Marinette walked up behind her to see what had caused her to react like that. She saw a blond haired boy kneeling down by her seat doing something to it.

“What are you doing?” Marinette demanded, rushing forward. She saw a chewed piece of gum on her seat, his finger against it as if he had just placed it there.

“I..” he was cut off by Chloe’s laughter.

She should have known that the heiress was involved in this.

Marinette placed her hands on her hips, pushing down the upset feeling that was building in her chest. No way was she going to give Chloe the satisfaction. “Ok, i get it. Good job, you three. Very funny.”

The boy jumped to his feet. “No, no. I was trying to take it off.”

She didn’t believe him. This had to be some sort of mean trick on Chloe’s behalf. “Really?” she demanded.

She huffed, placing her backpack on the ground and leaning down to get the piece of gum off her seat. She poke it before decided to just cover it up with a napkin. She’d deal with that later when she didn’t have an audience. She turned to the blond boy who she could feet still standing behind her. “You’re friends with Chloe, right?” she remembered Chloe mention yesterday that her friend was joining the class.

“Why do people keep saying that?” he asked as if he didn’t know.

Marinette just stood up angrily, not giving him the time of day, before sitting at her spot, making sure she didn’t step on the napkin. At least it wasn’t that far across the bench so she wasn’t going to be crowding Alya.

“That so wasn’t cool,” Alya said as she sat down beside Marinette. “See what I mean about who the real monster is.”

Marinette just hummed, not ready to talk about it yet. She would have thought after all these years Chloe’s bullying wouldn’t affected her anymore but she was wrong. She glanced over at the boy growing even more as she looked at him. Something about his face seemed familiar.

“I know I’ve seen him somewhere before,” she muttered. Alya must have read her mind because she handed her her phone which was pulled up to the issue of Paris that had Gabriel Agreste, aka Marinette’s fashion designer role model, was on the cover. That brat was his son. Figures he was rich with that attitude.

“Of course. He’s the son fave’ designer, Gabriel Agreste.” Marinette said just in case Alya didn’t know who exactly Gabriel Agreste was, since she was new to Paris. She flipped through the dozens of photos of Adrien, that was right his name was Adrien like her Chaton, though he’d never behave like this, recognizing some from some pretty popular _Gabriel_ ads.

“Daddy’s boy, teen supermodel and Chloe’s buddy?” Alya scoffed. “Forget it. That boy is bad news.”

Marinette made a noise of agreement. Any friend of Chloe was trouble to her.

Marinette and Alya both turned forward focusing on class as Ms. Bustier walked in. No need to think about Chloe and her bully friends.

“Agreste, Adrien.” Ms. Bustier called. There was a moment of silence as they all waited for him to say something. After all, they all knew he was there after that little display.

Suddenly the model shot to his feet, throwing his hand in the air and yelling ‘Present!’

Had he never had a roll call before? No one was the excited to have their name called.

“Bourgeois, Chloe?” Ms. Bustier asked, continuing the roll call after letting out a small giggle at the boys enthusiasm.

“Present,” Chloe said, giving a half hearted raise of the hand.

“Bruel, Ivan?”

There was a large bang and Marinette was startled enough that it took her a second to realize that Stoneheart had bursted into the room, literally.

“Present”! the giant stone akuma yelled. He turned to look at the class. “Mylène.” he called.

Marinette ran as Stoneheart shoved her desk to the side to get to Mylène, ducked under one of the desks, hoping Stoneheart hadn’t spotted her. Once he left she’d be able to sneak away and transform. Until then, she just need to stay safe and out of sight.

“Let go of me, Ivan,” she heard Mylène say. She risked a peak around the desk, seeing Mylène being held up in the air in Stoneheart’s right fist.

“I’m not Ivan anymore. I’m Stoneheart.”

“Why are you doing this?” Mylène asked, as Marinette ducked back behind the desk.

“So you and I can be together, forever!” That so wasn’t the way to get a girl.

“Daddy, the akuma is back,” Marinette heard Chloe saying. She risked another look and say Chloe ducked under her own desk, speaking on the phone with her father.

“You!” Stoneheart said, lifting the desk up and throwing it. Chloe screamed as Stoneheart picked Chloe up with his other hand.

“Please, my hair,” she begged.

Stoneheart didn’t listen to her, kicking a hole in the wall and jumping away.

“Put us down, Ivan!” she heard Mylène yell as she pulled herself up from under the desk. Now all she needed was to get away without anyone noticing. At least fleeing to her room was a good excuse with this akuma.

Before she could sneak away, Alya turned towards her. Guess there was a downside to making friends. “Let’s follow him.” she said.

She threw up her hands. “Oh no, you go. I’m finding a place to hide.” She put on her best terrified face. “I don’t like being around during akuma attacks.” There, hopefully Alya wouldn’t think anything of it in the future when she randomly disappeared.

“You’re gonna miss Ladybug in action.” Alya said, not knowing that if Marinette didn’t disappear, there’d be no Ladybug coming.

“Well… I see everything that happens on your blog, right? It’ll be like I was there myself” She smiled at Alya, hoping this was enough to get the blogger to leave her be. At this point, Chat Noir was going to beat her to the scene and the akuma appeared in her classroom.

Bingo, Alya seemed to realize that nothing she said was going to make her come with and left the room, not willing to lose out on the follow up story of Stoneheart’s akumatization.

Marinette creeped from the room, taking a moment to look down the hallway to make sure Alya wasn’t lurking around to try and convince her to come with still. Satisfied, Marinette rushed towards the girls bathroom, taking just enough of a moment to make sure all the stalls were empty before opening her purse. “Tikki, spots on!”

Instantly she was surrounded by the comfortable pink glow of her transformation. As soon as if fell away, leaving her as Ladybug, she bolted from the bathroom and used her yoyo to propel herself into the air, over the school wall and out into the city. She took a moment to survey the scene, to try and locate where exactly Stoneheart was. She caught a clamps of colour out of the corner of her eye and looked over, the streets having quickly been abandoned when Stoneheart had burst through the school wall, though Marinette would bet that several streets away there were car jams and lots of people milling about in a panic.

Turning to see what had caught her eye, Marinette just caught a glimpse of Alya as she rounded a street corner. Where Alya was going then that was likely where Stoneheart had gone.She swung herself over to the building of the street, to get a better view and felt her heart drop. A car was being flung towards Alya. Not having a good enough view, she dropped to the ground just as Chat Noir threw his baton to knock the car off course from squishing Alya. Ladybug flung her yoyo forward, wrapping it around Alya and pulling hard. Alya flew through the air towards, just missing being pinned by the car. She saw Chat Noir being grabbed by a stone being but she could only deal with one thing at a time.

“Oh my god, I was just save by Ladybug!” Alya said, speaking to her phone camera excitedly.

“Let’s get you out of the way.” Ladybug said, trying to not seem to familiar with the blogger.

Ladybug jumped onto the closet rooftop and set Alya down. “You should be safe here.” She took off running across the rooftops, but not before grabbing Chat Noir’s baton. Her Chaton would be every so sad if she lost that.

She turned around the street corner that the stone beings had gone, dropping to swing through the buildings, jumping off a stone beings head, before bouncing off a wall and throwing Chat Noir baton towards him where he was trapped in the one stone beings fist.

“Chat Noir, extend it!” she ordered, before she landed on a lamp post.

Chat Noir did as she said, extending the baton, forcing the stone beings hand to open, releasing him. As he dropped to the ground, she wrapped her yoyo string around the lamp post before throwing her yoyo out, wrapping it around his leg and pulling him out of the way of being squashed by the same stone being he had just escaped.

“Milady, fancy seeing you here,” Chat Noir greeted her even as he dangled upside down. “Have I ever told you you turn my world upside down?”

Ladybug went to make a quip back but was interrupted by the stone beings roaring. She glanced over and saw the three pissed off stone being approaching them.

“Now’s not the time,” she said, glancing up to the rooftops. “Hold on.”

Not waiting for him to say anything, she jumped into the air, dragging him behind her, and onto the rooftops. She got enough air that she was able to retract her yoyo, releasing her partner, without worrying about him falling off the roof. As the two bound across the rooftops, Ladybug pulled her yoyo and and slid the top half off to bring up the screen. She pulls dup the news to see what they were saying about Stoneheart, knowing that Chat Noir would let her know if she was in any danger, or close to running straight off a roof, which she did once and they will not speak of it again.

“Got a plan Milady?” her partner asked her.

She glanced down at the yoyo screen which showed Stoneheart standing on the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. “I have a few ideas but nothing solid.” she said. “We need to get to the source first.”

The two of them took a moment to survey the situation happening around the Eiffel Tower from the safety of steps of the Trocadéro. It hit Ladybug as she looked at the scene, that Lieutenant Roux was no longer in charge of Akuma cases. She knew that she had heard that on the news, but watching how the police stayed back, not attacking Stoneheart or risking civilian lives, really made it a reality to her. She just hoped they were staying back because they knew attacking would just make the situation worse and not just because Stoneheart had the mayors daughter.

The police had sectioned off the area around the Eiffel Tower, blocking off a large radius along with the entirety of Pont d’Inna, likely either evacuating the surrounding buildings and stores, or sending out a shelter and place order. Or she at least hope they did, sometimes they forgot to give out warnings so people who didn’t watch the news would sometimes wondering into the middle of fights, though the Eiffel Tower was enough of an Akuma hot spot that the police and news helicopters should be enough to keep people away.

“I demand my daughter’s safe return!” Mayor Bourgeois was saying through a megaphone as the two heroes approached.

“Daddy!” Chloe yelled, her voice carrying all the way down to them on the other side of the bridge from the tower.

“You’re welcome to her!” Stoneheart bellowed.

Oh, that wasn’t good.

Ladybug rushed forward as Chloe was thrown from the tower towards the mayor and the police that waited with him. As the mayor and Chloe screamed, Ladybug threw her yoyo forward, wrapping it around a part of the tower and pulling herself forward. She slammed into Chloe, skitter a stop a couple meters away form the mayor, landing on one knee, holding Chloe bridal style.

“I didn’t promise.” Chloe said.

“What?”

Chloe didn’t answer her, instead rushing towards her father, who met her half way and pulled her into a big hug. “My little princess,” he muttered.

“We’re clear to attack!” Lieutenant Raincomprix yelled from atop one father police cars. So much for have an officer in charge that wasn’t going to be more of a problem then a solution.

“Wait! Don’t attack! You’ll only make it worse.” Ladybug said, turning to the officers. Did they not pay attention to yesterday's battle at all. “Look what happened yesterday when Lieutenant Roux attacked instead of letting us do our jobs.”

“You mean where you failed to stop Stoneheart from continuing to attack the city?” Lieutenant Roux demanded. “You failed us yesterday and its time for the pros to step in and do our jobs of keeping Paris safe.”

“Attacking him directly is only going to make him more powerful.” Ladybug insisted. “And you run the risk of injuring a innocent civilian, an innocent school child. Just because Stoneheart release Chloe, didn’t mean he release the other civilian.”

“What about all those innocent civilians that were turned into rock monsters last night? We take Stoneheart down and they’ll return to normal.”

“But you don’t know that. Let Chat Noir and I deal with this, and in an hour, if everything isn’t back to normal, then you can do it your way.” Ladybug tried bargaining.

Roger Raincomprix seemed to think over her offer. “You have half an hour.” he finally said.

Ladybug nodded, turning around to face her partner. Before she could come up with a plan with him, Stoneheart started coughing, falling back from where her stood to the actual Platform. Ladybug felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. The last time an akuma had started coughing was when, during their first akuma battle, when Hawkmoth had contacting them, and informed all of Paris of his presence, via a giant face of baffled up butterflies. Purifying all of those had been a pain in the ass, and Ladybug wasn’t looking forward to doing again.

She tried not to sigh out loud when a face of dark purple and black butterflies had been caught out by Stoneheart, forming Hawkmoths face. There were almost triple the amount of butterflies as the last time, creating an even larger face.

“For months now,” Hawkmoth said through his butterfly face. A part of her wondered if she could use ladybugs in the same way, or if Chat Noir could do it with a bunch of cats. “You have lived in fear, unable to express you emotions. Ladybug and Chat Noir could have out an end to all of this that first day. All they had to do was hand over their Miraculouses, the ladybug earrings and car ring now, and you’d no longer have to live in fear. Ladybug and Chat Noir, the two of you have done enough damage to the people of Paris.”

Oh, Ladybug felt anger building inside her, no way was he going to let the blame fall on them when he was the one terrorizing Paris. She took a calming breath before starting to slow clap, as she slowly walked closer to the floating face. “Nice try,” she said, “but we know who the bad guy is.”

She wasn’t going to let Hawkmoth radicalize the people who were already iffy on her and Chat Noir and create a divide in Paris, allowing Hawkmoth to have more victims to akumatize.

“Let’s not reverse the roles.” she continued. “You turned these innocent victims into villains. You have taken people who have rightfully felt upset or angry, something every human should be allowed to do, and made it into something people fear. You are the true villain here, not us and not the people of Paris. Hawkmoth, I make this promise to you, and to the people of Paris, no matter how long it takes, we will find you and you’ll hand us _your_ Miraculous!”

She rushed forward, twirling her yoyo in the air as she went before flinging it out and wrapping it around two streetlights and slingshotting herself into the air and towards the floating butterfly face. She wasn’t going to put up with this BS. She twisted herself in the air, her yoyo flinging and twisting out around her, catching each and every butterfly with a yell of her now iconic saying, ‘time to de-evilize’. Hawkmoth didn’t even try to fight back against her attack making her think that the only capabilities of the butterfly face was as a communication form.

She landed on the first viewing platform of the Tower and turned to face the people of Paris, either the officers and officials that were down below or to all the people of the Paris watching from the safety of their homes.

“Let me make this promise!” She called out to them. “Whoever wants to harm you, Chat Noir and I will do all we can to keep you safe.” She took out her yoyo and released the mass of purified butterflies. She made a silent promise to herself to never let herself get distracted again, to never fail again.

“Ok, Hawkmoth,” Ladybug turned around and saw the neon purple butterfly outline on Stonehearts face. Seemed like since Hawkmoth failed to intimidate them, he was falling back ontrying to beat the Miraculouses off of them.

Chat Noir joined her into jumping in front of Stoneheart.

“Help me!” Mylène called, unfortunately not having been released from Stonehearts hand when he had collapsed.

“You’ll never take Mylène from me!” Stoneheart yelled. He jumped across the platform, shaking the entire tower as he landed, causing her and Chat Noir to fall down. “Come to me, my stone beings!”

“We’re surrounded.” Chat Noir said as he glanced over the towers edge. “What are we going to do now? Attacking him is only going to make him more powerful.”

“At least we know where his object is,” Ladybug said, happy they had one less thing to worry about.

“In the fist he’s got Mylène in,” Chat Noir finished for her.

“Exactly,” she frowned in thought. “So, he’s in love with her… That’s it! We don’t separate them, we bring them closer together. They’re made for each other, they just don’t know it.”

“Sure.” Chat Noir said, as she flew off. She knew he didn’t quite get what she meant yet, but if there was one thing her partner was good at, it was going with the flow until her plan became more obvious. It’s one of the things that made them such great partners. She was a strategist, coming up with the ideas, while he was the muscles, executing the important part of the plan most of them time, while keeping her on her feet and from getting too stuck in her head.

She flung her yoyo up the tower, hopping up the side of it, as she started to plan the smaller details of how she was going to get Ivan and Mylène closer. Chat Noir followed behind her, able to scale the tower without the use of his baton. Once she was past the bulk of the tower, she flung her yoyo up, using it to propel herself all the way to the top of the tower, past Stoneheart and Mylène and the news helicopters that Stoneheart was swatting at.

“Help! I’m scared of heights!” Mylène called out to her, seeing her land land at the very top of the tower.

“It’ll be alright!” she called back, trying to reassure her classmate. It wasn’t like she was trying to be stealthy at the moment.

Stoneheart didn’t like that, throwing his head back and roaring at her.

“Anything you need to me to do yet?” Chat Noir called out, as he prepared to fight off the stone beings which had quickly scaled the tower and were closing in.

“Not quite yet.” she yelled down at him. She was missing a key element. Good thing she had the perfect thing to get said element. “Lucky Charm!”

A parachute fell down to her. At least this was a lucky charm that made sense right off the bat. She slipped the parachute onto her back, ignoring Chat Noir flying through the air behind her back. She knew he hand things under control and could handle the stone beings, especially when he looked on form and determined as he flew through the air.

She stood straight up from where she had been perched, flinging her yoyo around in the air in the same manor she would if she were trying to shield herself. She studied Stonehearts body position before flinging her yoyo down at him, wrapping it under his arm and torso, leveraging it so that when her pulled, quite hard, stone wasn’t light after all, his fist went towards his body, pulling Mylène closer until her lips gently pressed against Stonehearts. She retracting her yoyo as Stonehearts had flew out in surprise, releasing Mylène, who just managed to grab onto one of Stonehearts fingers to keep from plummeting to the ground.

Chat Noir, the clever kitty, threw himself off the edge of the tower, using his baton as a bungee cord, falling just far enough to smack the akumatize object back up to her, without her even asking. She caught the akumatized object with her yoyo, wrapping the cord around it and pulling tight, cracking it. She slipped the piece of paper that was left, into her yoyo to give back later.

She ran her finger along her yoyo face, opening it up to catch to yoyo. She started swinging it, “No more evil-doing for you, little Akuma.” she stopped though, before she could catch it as she saw Stoneheart turn back into Ivan, something that wouldn’t sometime happen until she casted the cure which was something she was hoping for. He and Mylène started plummeting to the ground.

She set her face in determination, taking a moment to glance at where the Akuma was before diving from the tower. “Chat Noir, take care of Ivan,” she order, focused on Mylène as she pressed her legs and arms tightly in, allowing her to fall faster then both of her classmates who were flailing around.

She saw Chat Noir call for his power, jumping from his baton and grabbing onto a piece of rusty Eiffel Tower that had extruded from the tower when he touched it with his hand. It extended until he was under Ivan, catching him easily. Satisfied that Ivan was safe, she dropped down to Mylène, grabbing her around her torso before turning around and shooting her yoyo up in the air catching the akuma before it could get any farther away. “Gotcha,” she said as her yoyo returned to her. She yanked on her parachutes cord before they could fall any farther. They sailed gently to the ground, handing at the base of the tower. Mylène fell to her knees, mostly likely shaky from the days events.

Ladybug pulled her yoyo back out and opened it up. “Bye bye, little butterfly,” she said as the pure white butterfly flew away. She grabbed the parachute and tossed it in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” The parachute instantly dissolved into thousands of little ladybugs. She loved watching the cure fly about the city as the little ladybugs fixed everything that had been damaged or changed throughout the last two days.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to find this not beautiful,” Chat Noir said as he helped Ivan over to them.

“Yeah. It’s the best part of doing this.” There was something just so magical, so miraculous about watching the cure work.

She stood by Ivan and Mylène as the police started breaking down their barricade, and helping the people who had been turned into stone beings down from the tower. Chat Noir stood a couple feet away, letting Ivan and Mylène have their privacy, while keeping his eyes on them, making sure none of the police tried to harass or grab Ivan to interrogate him. It hadn’t happened in awhile, but was still a worry that the two of them had.

“I think you two need to talk,” she said to her classmates.

“I-I,” Ivan stuttered. He glanced away, embarrassed.

She turned to Mylène, deciding to help out her larger classmate. “It may help if you read the lyrics to Ivan’s song.” she told the shorter girl. She pulled out the piece of paper that the song was written on, handing it to Mylène before heading over to her partner, leaving the two to figure out their feelings by theirselves. She’s meddled enough for the day.

She watched as the two talked before Mylène hugged Ivan tightly, causing the bigger boy to blush. Smiling she turned to her partner. “They’re made for each other.” she announced.

“Like us too,” Chat Noir said, leaning to put an arm around her.

She grabbed his arm, pulling him forward and pointing to his ring. “See that? You’re out of time,” she told him. She may of let him put his arm around her had them been out of public eye but she wanted to stay professional when they were being watching and a relationship wasn’t professional. Not that she and Chat Noir were in a romantic relationship. She couldn’t be in one with someone who she didn't know beneath the mask they wore, whom she couldn’t share most of her life with. She cared for her partner dearly, but she wouldn’t allow her emotions to go there.

She turned and started to head away as her earrings let out their own beep. “Time to split. See you soon, Chat Noir,” she said to him. She glanced back in time to see him waving to her before she flew off, heading home to see whether or not school was going to reopen for the day though it likely was. She wonder as Akuma attacks became more often if the school board would decided to force kids back to school right after attacks whether they were in a traumatizing situation or not so that they didn’t fall behind on their studies.

The next day she, once again on time, heading to school and met Alya right outside of the building. She was really liking having a civilian friend.

“How’d the akuma attack go? Get some good footage?” she asked Alya. She had been too tired, and her parents had wanted to spend extra time together the night before, and hadn’t been able to check the Ladyblog.

Alya let out a dramatic sigh. “By the time I biked to the Eiffel Tower, it was all over. I’m way bummed.” she said. Marinette wasn’t. She was glad her friend hadn’t been in any danger besides almost being pinned by a flying car. She didn’t get how Alya could be so gung ho about putting herself into dangerous situations.

“On the plus side,” Alya continued. “I did get rescued by Ladybug which was amazing.”

“You’ll get your scoop eventually,” Marinette reassured her friend. Hopefully it’d be from a safe distance.

“You’re right,” Alya agreed. “Next target; ‘Ladybug: An Exclusive Interview.’”

“Sounds exciting,” and Chat Noir had been insisting that they do more interviews to connect better with the people of Paris and make themselves more relatable to try and battle the officers and officials that had been speaking out against them, saying they should leave the akumas to the police.

“Oh, wait, even better,” Alya said, looking excited. “Finding out who’s really under that mask!”

And that was a lot less exciting. “Good luck with that one,” Marinette said nervously trying to keep Alya from sensing anything off about her. She’d have to warn Chat Noir about this development. So far they hadn’t had any press trying to follow them but that may change. Alya trying to figure their identities out them spark a fire under professional reports and the two of them find themselves in sticky situations.

The two of them heading into class, Marinette taking a moment to deal with Chloe for a day. The second Marinette walked into the classroom though, she felt a spike of anger overtake her calmness. She was Ladybug. Why did she let Chloe walk all over her? Alya had proved that she wasn’t all powerful and she defiantly wasn’t scarier then any Akuma.

“No, wait.” Marinette said as Alya went to their seat, determined. She hopped up the steps and gestured to the seat she had sat in last year and the years before, smiling at her friend. Alya smiled back up at her, joining her on the second platform, sliding in first so she sat close to the wall. Marinette slid in after her, both of them smiling to each other as they sat down. They fist bumped each other before Chloe walked in, Sabrina trailing behind her.

“You’re in the wrong seats,” Chloe said, turning to the angrily. She pointed to where the two of them had been forced to sit before. “Go on, get lost.”

Marinette looked down at Chloe, determined. “All that’s necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good people do nothing,” she quoted.

“That’s that supposed to mean?” Chloe asked, puffing her shoulders up in a little huffed laugh.

“It means I’m not putting up with your crus anymore, either is anyone else.” Marinette informed her. She stood up and pointed to the seat that had previously been hers and Alya’s. “So take your attitude and go and get lost!”

The rest of the class started laughing at the sight of Chloe being told off, not exactly what she had wanted but at least it showed Chloe that she wasn’t by herself with being done with the heiresses BS.

Chloe glared but the laughing seemed to deter her from doing anything at the moment. She stomped off the seats Marinette had pointed to, all while still glaring at her. Marinette just confidently put her hands on her hips and smiled at her, refusing to let the blond get to her. If she couldn’t handle Chloe, how could she be expected to handle Hawkmoth.

She sat back down and Alya gently pushed her shoulder. “Good job,” she said.

She smiled softly at her friend before looking up to see the blond boy, Adrien, who had put the piece of gum on her seat. He gave her a little wave as if she was going to remember what had happened the other day. She turned to look away from him with a huff. At least Chloe had the decently to act like the bitch she was.

She spent the rest of the day ignoring the models existence. She just got Chloe out of her life, she wasn’t about to invite new trouble in.

Marinette headed out of the school building at the end of the day, disappointed that she couldn’t use the Ladybug miraculous to get herself home, especially when she had forgotten her umbrella and it was raining cats and dogs. She stood under the roof and stretched her hand out before dropping it with a sigh. She was so going to get soaked. She pulled her backpack off, knowing she would have to wait for the rain to die down a bit. Knowing her she trip on a wet step, break her leg, and then who would be Ladybug?

“Hey,” She turned around to see Adrien standing behind her, an umbrella grasped in his hand.

She huffed, looking away from him. Why couldn’t he just act more like Chloe? Why did he have to act like everything was okay.

He extending his umbrella and took a step out into the rain. He took a step, maybe two, before stoping. “I just want you to know,” he said, not turning to face her. “I was only trying to get the gum off, I swear.” Marinette just starred at him, sensing no dishonesty from him. “I’ve never been to school before. I’ve never had friends. it’s all sort of new to me.” He glanced back at her, shrugging as if to say he didn’t care if she forgave him, that he just wanted her to know the truth.He stared at her a second before handing her his umbrella.

Marinette stared at him, glancing between the umbrella and his face, which showed genuine emotion. Either he wasn’t playing with her, or he was the best actor she had ever seen. She hesitantly reached out and took hold of the umbrella. No one had ever apologized to her, especially not for something Chloe had done. They just expected her to get over it. They met each others eyes for just a moment before her world went dark. it took her a second to realize the umbrella had collapsed, just her luck.

Adrien started to laugh, but it wasn’t one full of venom, it was one that was surprised that the umbrella had collapsed and didn’t know how else to react. Marinette pulled up one edge of the umbrella to peak up at him, her heart beating as her cheeks warmed. She couldn’t help it, she started laughing with him.

“I’m Marinette by the way,” she introduced her self. “Sorry that I jumped to conclusions the other day.”

Adrien look at her surprised on his face. “Well Marinette,” he said with a familiar smirk on his face. “My name is Adrien, but you can call me Prince Charming.”

Marinette felt her world come to a halt. She flashback to several months ago when she and Chat Noir had made the decision to share first names. She had gone first, surprising her partner but when he shared his name he had said the exact same thing.

“It’s nice to meet you Adrien,” she said numbly.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Maribug.”

And she was an idiot. The person she thought was a massive jerk was actually her very kind and well meaning partner.

Before she could say anything else a car horn sounded from the road in front of the school steps.

“That’s my ride,” Adrien said as if they hadn’t just discovered each others identities. “I’ll see you later.”

“S-see you l-later,” she stammered. She watch him approached the car, unable to tell if she felt numb or was about to have a panic attack. “I think I’m in trouble, Tikki,” she muttered.

Tikki flew up and pressed against her cheek. “Things all happen for a reason. Maybe there’s a reason that the two of you have met like this. You just don’t have all the pieces to see the bigger picture yet.”

That made her feel a bit better. At least Tikki didn’t think them meeting was the end of the world.

Marinette watched Adrien drive off, or well be driven away, before she made her way home. Today had been a day, yesterday had been a day, and she couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring, especially with Adrien, her Chaton, in her everyday life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you guys thought. I'd love to have some feedback, especially for when I go to fix this chapter.


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